Political parties show rare unity against the enemy, the people of India

If you want to see unity in diversity in action, India is the place. We have political parties of myriad hues from saffron to green and white in between. We have regions that have regional parties who are engaged in what's often a cutthroat contest in their fiefs. If you look at our Parliament or state assemblies, you can see they fight like dogs. It's rare to find a meeting point in debates where microphones and chairs turn into missiles. Shoes travel from feet to hands and land on heads.

Do not, however, make the mistake of thinking that it's a divided polity. Our political parties may be quarreling over every conceivable subject but they are united when it comes to the crucial elements of their politics. They, in unison, do not want the people of India to know how exactly they run their own affairs. The political pack prefers it opaque. (Read more from the blogger)

The ruling rainbow coalition called United Progressive Alliance is led by the Congress party, which takes pride in introducing the Right to Information Act. The Act allows a common citizen to send an application to any government department and seek minute details about every penny they spend on every programme. Only minutes of meetings were out of the Act's purview, which stays challenged. The same Congress party is bringing an ordinance to ensure that nothing about the finances of the party becomes public knowledge.

The Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, the leader of the other rainbow coalition called National Democratic Alliance, has by habit opposed everything that the UPA ever proposed. That's the sacred duty of the Opposition and they have never shied away from shouting from the rooftop about the misdeeds of the ruling coalition. But the old habit died unbelievably quickly when it came to the bharatiya janata's right to know how the party finances its various rallies.

Even the Communists, who do not miss an opportunity to show off their lack of wealth, want their lack of wealth out of the ambit of the Right to Information Act. Regional parties too want their skeletons to stay in the cupboards.

Those in favour of opening up say that the opacity of political finance is the fountain of political corruption. Just the other day, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde admitted to splurging some crores beyond the lakhs that the Election Commission allows a candidate to spend in an election. For a party, the cost overrun runs in thousands of crores. We just do not know who pays for it. Those who pay for it obviously get a decent return on their investment, which is why they pay in the next elections. It's called corporate funding for want of a better name.

This is the information age. We are apparently on an information superhighway. But you hit a wall, a giant wall, when you try entering the party offices. The government wants all the information about you. It has attractive schemes like Aadhar to fool people into surrendering their data to the government. There is RTI for people for force the government to surrender its data. The party wants an entry into your house every five years. It wants your vote, the biggest weapon in your arsenal. Parties however do not want the same contract with people. They say they are private entities like clubs. It's a different matter that it's not really the government that decides India's fate. It's the political party that runs it. As long as the political party behaves like a private party, India will be run by private individuals. We have come a long way from being ruled by feudal lords. Or have we? (Read more from the blogger)